In recent years the popularity of the cambering vehicles and mechanisms with wheels for sport and recreation has increased. Such wheeled vehicles, which are propelled forwardly by the body movement of the occupant, have already been proposed in several patent applications. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,192 discloses a three-wheeled scooter—type vehicle, comprising a front supporting hand-controlled steering wheel, a pair of rearwardly extending foot support frames pivotally connected with the front steering column, each of said foot support frames being carried on a caster wheel with ball bearings for independent sidewise swinging movement, i.e., each foot support is allowed to pivot around the steering column sideways. Such a swinging movement is, however, an abnormal motion for a user such that movement with the scooter-type vehicle is exhausting.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,612 discloses a cambering vehicle with a single steerable front wheel and a pair of rear wheels at the rearward ends of trailing arms extending from the front structure. The two trailing arms are articulated to the front structure, and may move arcuately in a plane parallel to the front wheel column of the vehicle. The two trailing arms are linked together by a yoke mechanism and move in opposite directions but in equal arcuate distances relative to one another. Thus, for propelling the vehicle the user inclines his/her body alternatively from one side to the other, thus transferring his/her weight from one side of the vehicle to the other. This kind of movement results in an almost “sinusoidal” path of the vehicle.
U.S. 2007/0096410 relates to ski devices, specifically to a tri platform control device, which allows a person to stand on while skiing. The design of this tri-platform is similar to the design of the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,612 device. In particular, the device uses a universal joint to attach two lateral platforms to a vertical platform. The tri platform is designed to allow the lateral platforms to stay parallel to one another while skiing the edge. Moreover, U.S. 2007/0096410 also discloses an embodiment with adjustable lateral platforms, which allows the rider to adjust the width of the lateral platforms before riding, i.e., the distance between the two permanently parallely aligned platforms is adjustable.
The German Patent DE 197 57 358 relates to a training device for simulating cross-country skiing on rollers (classical style). The device comprises two tread means, which are connected with ground-contacting rollers and are mounted for longitudinal sliding motion (forward and rearward). A steering means is coupled with the tread means. The steering means is further connected at the bottom to at least one wheel. In order to support the forward/rearward motion of the tread means, at least one roller of each tread means can rotate in one direction only.
The natural skating motion with roller skates or inline-skates is nowadays very popular since a very efficient and rapid locomotion is possible. However, learning skating depends highly on the person's individual ability; usually it takes a talented beginner about six weeks to learn to skate.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a robust apparatus which is adapted to support a user's feet in movement during a natural skating motion. A further object of the invention is to provide a simplified device which may be easily and economically manufactured, and which allows a user to perform a leg motion which approximates the motion performed by roller blading or ice skating.
This and other objects are achieved by the features of the independent claim. Further preferred embodiments are characterized in the dependent claims.